MUXTAPE MIXTAPE MONDAYS: Melodramatic Melodies / Variegated Vocalities

(Every Monday at Tragically Hipster we'll feature a look at a band, performance, or vague musical concept, with an accompanying virtual mixtape for your listening pleasure. Muxtapes will be kept online only until the next week's column is up, so listen while you can. There's no need to thank us; it's just one more service we like to provide for you, our dedicated readers. Most of whom also write for this site.)

Thanks to Muxtape's unfortunately-timed run-in with the RIAA, we've switched temporarily to the 8tracks service (take a wild guess at how many songs they allow you to upload at a time). Unfortunately, 8tracks provides a lot less functionality than Muxtape, so today's might be the last Mixtape Mondays column for the foreseeable future.

But on to this week's abbreviated mix. This time out we're highlighting songs that feature melodramatic narratives in conjuncture with unusual vocal performances. Starting with a theatrical appropriation of marketing terminology applied to delusions of religious grandeur in Sophe Lux's "Target Market"; moving on to the cabaret-esque performance of Antony & The Johnsons' "Hitler in My Heart" (surely the first song to use the holocaust as a metaphor for the arrogance of unrequited passion); on through the paranoiac high school mini-epic "Teenage Wildlife," one of the few songs to make full use of David Bowie's vocal range; and climaxing with a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" sung by Tuvan "throat singer" Albert Kuvezin.

In between, we detour through Robert Smith's out-of-body nightmare; Björk's collaboration with flamenco guitarist Raimundo Amador, detailing her reaction to a fan's 1996 attempt to murder her; and avant-garde performance-vocalist Diamanda Galás' surprisingly restrained rendition of "Dark End of the Street," the quintessential adultery soul-ballad.

As for Wild Beasts and the falsetto soar of lead singer Hayden Thorpe, words don't really do it justice. But do yourself a favor: after you've fallen in love with the sheer melodic texture of his voice, hunt up the lyrics to "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants," and develop a whole new sense of appreciation for the band's theatricality of vision.

On the Mixtape:

1) "Target Market" by Sophe Lux

2) "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants (Single Mix)" by Wild Beasts

3) "Piggy in the Mirror" by The Cure

4) "Hitler in My Heart" by Antony & The Johnsons

5) "At the Dark End of the Street" by Diamanda Galás

6) "So Broken" by Björk

7) "Teenage Wildlife" by David Bowie

8) "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Yat-Kha

LINKS:

Melodramatic Melodies w/ Variegated Vocalities Mixtape

Waking the Mystics by Sophe Lux

Limbo, Panto by Wild Beasts

The Top by The Cure

Antony and the Johnsons by Antony & The Johnsons

La Serpenta Canta by Diamanda Galás

Joga (CD Single) by Björk

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) by David Bowie

Re-Covers by Yat-Kha